Spoiler: Samuel L. Jackson responds to Split & potential sequel

Okay, if you ignored the above warning and are still reading then what you’re about to read is your own fault, as SPLIT has been out for a month and has made $118 million at the box office ($175 million worldwide, and on a $9 million budget) as of this writing, leaving UNBREAKABLE fans in a state of unending orgasm. A sequel is currently being written, and now it’s just a matter of getting the rest of the crew on board, including the always-down Samuel L. Jackson.

Jackson recently spoke with Collider about SPLIT, and the actor, who played the wheelchair-bound Elijah Price in UNBREAKABLE, had no idea the twist was coming when he saw the flick, despite an ominous call from Shyamalan beforehand:

I got a call and [Shyamalan] said, “Call me I wanna talk to you about something.” And I called him, because I always do when I get a message from him always hoping [it’s Unbreakable 2], and he said, “I just did this film called Split, I want you to see it,” and I was like “OK, I’m down with that.” I had no idea what Split was about or anything else, and he said, “We’ll talk after you see it.” So I went to the arranged screening and I called him immediately and was like, “OK dude does this mean what I think it means?” and he was like, “Well first we gotta see how the movie does.” And I think the movie’s done well enough now to merit the “OK, let’s put this together.”

The movie has indeed done well, both with audiences and critics, who are hailing it as the director’s best film in over a decade. Now that love for the director has returned, and fans are desperate to see how this plays out knowing what SPLIT has led into, Jackson is as eager as anyone to see James McAvoy and Bruce Willis duke it out…of course with some involvement from Elijah:

I think he’s an adequate foe for what Bruce’s Unbreakable character is in terms of him being sort of unbreakable too in that kind of way, and me having found now—fuck, that would be two people that Elijah would look at and go, “Why are they so this and I’m so this on this end of the spectrum?” It’s just a matter of breaking my ass out of wherever that mental institution was they had me locked up and let’s get it on, let’s see what happens!

Shyamalan is writing the movie now, but Disney still owns the rights to the characters (despite letting the director use Willis’ character, David Dunn, for the ending), so as to who gets the rights to future movies will be the biggest hurdle in getting the movie made.

As for how Elijah could play a role in the battle between Kevin (McAvoy) and David (Willis) I think Jackson has a pretty solid idea. Elijah would probably have some jealously that these two actually have abilities, and to see how he would deal with that would be an engaging development for the character to go through. Hopefully Disney and Universal (who released SPLIT) will be cool and come to an agreement so this movie can be made smoothly. C'mon, Disney, you already own the world!

SPLIT is still in theaters, and you can see Jackson in KONG: SKULL ISLAND March 10.